Reusing & Repitching Yeast

Hi Everyone - Lately I have been collecting, washing and storing yeast after primary fermentation. This yields quite a bit of yeast. When I make a starter to get the yeast active again, how much yeast from storage should I be putting into the starter? I am worried about potentially over-pitching my next batch of beer.

Also the last two times I washed yeast after fermentation I did not see if a definite layering of good yeast on top and a layer of trub on the bottom. The entire cake that settled out looked the same color. I took the top half of the cake for the top for storage and threw the rest away. Am I doing something wrong during the washing process?

Thanks.

I put my washed yeast into sanitized White Labs vials. That way you have a good idea how much yeast you have.

Mr.Malty has a pitching rate calculator that may help you out,with it you probably wont even need a starter having so much of it.

What I like to do is pour some sterile water in the carboy, swirl it around then let it sit for 20-30 minutes. Decant the hazy liquid into smaller containers, leaving the trub in the carboy, then let those sit for 20-30 minutes. Pour the liquid into smaller containers and put in the fridge.

What I do is add a gallon of sterile water to my ferm vessel, swirl it around and funnel it into a one gallon jug. I let that sit for about 45-60 minutes then decant the milky layer to my 1L flask. Then I let that sit for another 45-60 mins then decant the milky layer to a sterilized 22 0z. bottle. I've had good results with this, no trub layer, just all yeasties.